HI I cant see a problem, your technique is your technique and if it works, it works. So dont be so hard, you got clear definition, nice POV, nice DOF, the picture is centred nicely, colour is not over or underexposed. & you have not over cooked it while editing. This shows some restraint. Really cant see what the problem is. Like yourself I shoot in RAW then convert to TIFF, then grayscale, use the levels to get the effect I want, I am happy from feedback, but to be honest and quite brutal, they dont know what I am trying to achieve while editing, they only know what I have done when I post. Dont mean to be harsh about it but, go for it if it works.